Came
in the morning, as they did on alternate weeks, that they learned well,
but when they came in the afternoon they were sleepy and listless. On
that morning they had to rise at five o'clock.
The schools which I have seen in Ireland, for so far, are conducted on
the old plan; children learn their lessons at home, repeat them to the
teachers in school, who never travel out of record, are trained in
obedience, respect to superiors, and in order, more or less, according
to the nature of the teacher. They still adhere to the broad sound of A,
which has been so universally abandoned on the other side of the water.
The factories at Gilford are very remunerative; great fortunes, allowing
of the purchase of landed estates and the building of more than one
castlelike mansion have been made in them. From Tandragee to Portadown,
in Armagh, which we travelled in a special car, took us through the same
green country waving with crops, and in some places shaded heavily with
trees. In the environs of Gilford - as if that very clean manufacturing
town set an example that was universally followed - all the houses are
clean and white as to the outside, further away the dreadful-looking
homes abound.
